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In a symbolic milestone, Sears will soon close its last store in Chicago — the city the iconic retailer has called home or been closely connected to for 120 years.

The store, at 4730 W. Irving Park Road, will go out of business in mid-July with the liquidation sale of its merchandise starting on April 27.

The Chicago storefront is part of a batch of 265 Sears and Kmart locations that were purchased by the real estate investment trust Seritage Growth Properties in 2015, then leased back by the retailer. An investment firm owned by Eddie Lampert, Sears Holdings' CEO, has a significant ownership stake in Seritage.

Sears, has closed hundreds of stores since the start of 2017 amid sluggish sales and the shifting tastes of shoppers who increasingly prefer to buy online or from rival retailers like Walmart and Best Buy.

Customers look at a display of winter coats in a Sears store in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Company chairman Eddie Lampert has put in a bid to keep the business running in its entirety. Mark Lennihan, AP

Forty-five Kmart stores and 18 Sears stores will be closing in late January 2018, the company said Thursday. Hal Degraff, of Livonia, Mich., stopped by to take a photograph of the Livonia Kmart. He has shopped there for at least a dozen years and said that he will miss it. Bill Bresler, USA TODAY NETWORK

Customers shop at Chicago's last remaining Sears store May 3, 2018 in Chicago. The store, which opened in 1938, is scheduled to close in July. Sears opened its first retail store in Chicago in 1925. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

Signs in the window of a Sears store advertise the store's closing on May 3, 2018 in Chicago. . The store, which opened in 1938, is the city's last remaining Sears store. Sears opened its first retail store in Chicago in 1925. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

On Nov. 3, 2017, it was announced a total of 63 K-Mart and Sears stores have been targeted for closure to cut costs. Traffic passes by a Sears department store in Brooklyn's Flatbush, in New York. Sears, once the monolith of American retail, in March 2017 announced that there is "substantial doubt" that it will be able to keep its doors open. Bebeto Matthews, AP

Generations of Americans picked their holiday gifts from Sears catalogues, first published in 1933. In 2017 Sears brought back its "Wish Book'' with a digital twist hoping to lure consumers back to the retailer of toys, appliances and apparel. Sears, Roebuck and Co.

A shopper walks up to a Sears department store at the Tri-County Mall, in Springdale, Ohio in this March 2017 file photo. Sears will no longer sell Whirlpool appliances, ending a business partnership that dates make more than 100 years. John Minchillo, AP

Customers shop at a Kmart store on Aug. 24, 2017 in Elmhurst, Illinois. Sears Holdings Corporation, the owner of Kmart, said today it was planning on closing another 28 Kmart store including this Elmhurst location. Scott Olson, Getty Images

A sign announcing the store will be closing hangs above a Sears store on Aug. 24, 2017 in Chicago. Sears Holdings Corporation, which owns both Sears and Kmart, said it was planning on closing another 28 Kmart stores. Scott Olson, Getty Images

This is a vintage Sears Roebuck & Co. in Rochester, N.Y. The company that operates Sears, the department store chain that dominated retail for decades, warned March 21, 2017, that it faces "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business unless it can borrow more and tap cash from more of its assets. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Sears, which at the end of its fiscal year had about 140,000 employees, said that it expects to continue to try to generate cash from real estate sales and borrowing. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Founded in 1886, Sears was built around its famous catalog that was so complete that entire houses could be ordered -- delivered in pieces to be built on a site. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Sears is under financial pressure and has warned it may fail. But it has seen many better days. Here, Sears store associates in Schaumburg, Ill. help customers shop more than 1,000 doorbuster deals on Thanksgiving Day in 2015 Jean-Marc Giboux, AP Images for Sears

But the shuttering of the last Sears in Chicago is especially poignant. The city has been tied to the retailer's identity since it first moved its headquarters there from Minnesota in 1887 and later put its stamp on the city's skyline with the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the world when it became Sears' corporate base in 1973.

"Although we are disappointed by this last store closure in Chicago, by no means does this change our commitment to our customers and presence to Chicago’s residents,'' the company said in a statement.

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Sears raised $100 million in new funding and forecast a smaller loss in the fourth quarter, sending its shares higher.

Sears, which also owns Kmart, has struggled financially in recent years, laying off scores of employees, borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars and dealing with credit downgrades. But in its most recent earnings period, the company reported a profit thanks to a boost by the new federal tax law.

The retailer says it will continue to streamline operations and promote its Shop Your Way loyalty membership program, among other moves, to help it regain its relevance and footing.